It stars ICE Director John Morton, reprising his usual ridiculous refrain in which he conflates actual counterfeit goods with copyright infringement. But this time, he shows off his ability to stroll quickly through a warehouse while doing a walk-and-talk. I have to admit that it feels like a parody video most of the time. He kicks it off with a claim that he's explaining how to "steal an American job." Then he claims, "here's how to save an American job: IPR enforcement!"

He's wrong. First of all, the "job loss" from counterfeits is totally and completely exaggerated. As has been shown by multiple studies, most people buying counterfeits (hell, and downloading infringing works) wouldn't have bought the real thing instead. They know they're buying a fake good. So no "job" is lost there. And, as the government's own GAO noted last year, the idea that this all leads to lost jobs simply isn't supported by the data.

Second, enforcement does not "save jobs." It does put massive burdens on legitimate sites. Something Morton should know about since he's been taking down legitimate American sites with no legal basis for quite some time.

But before we get to that, he shows off some counterfeit products. There's a handbag, some fake drugs (they always have to show the fake drugs, despite it being a tiny issue, but they have to show some sort of "danger"). And then there's a video game mod chip. He says it "allows you to hack into video games and steal the game for free. That's illegal. That's IP theft." Of course, it's debatable if mod-chips are really illegal. They have substantial non-infringing purposes other than "hacking into video games to steal them for free" (do people steal stuff not for free?). But, you know, that's ICE under John Morton: declaring it illegal for you to modify products you legally purchased, like your gaming console. Thanks, US government!

Then we get to website censorship. And boy is he proud of that. You can see him gleaming as he says that ICE has "done a phenomenal job" and "every time they make a bust, every time they make an arrest, an American job is saved."

So, I wonder, can John Morton explain whose job was saved when his staffers incorrectly seized and censored Dajaz1.com for over a year? I'm curious. Because it sure seems like he actually hurt the ability of the Americans who run that site to make money. I'm curious whose job was saved when his staff deported a missing teen to Colombia (where she was not from). Is that the kind of "phenomenal" work under John Morton we should expect more of?

He then shows off "the news coverage" that ICE has gotten for seizing websites. Notice that he leaves out the stories about the mistaken seizure of multiple websites beyond Dajaz1. Like the seizure of 84,000 legitimate sites that were replaced with a statement claiming that they were all involved in child porn. Somehow those clips just didn't make the cut. Phenomenal work "saving American jobs!"

Morton goes on to talk up how "proud of the results" he is over the seizing of websites. Once again, no mention of the ones he seized by mistake, causing tremendous harm to those who he falsely declared as criminals. What's amazing is that he's never issued an apology over those false seizures. Instead, he's "proud of the phenomenal job" his team has done? What a joke.

Finally, he highlights the PSA that ICE put on the websites they forfeited. What he leaves out, of course, is that the PSA was both created by and owned by NBC Universal -- something ICE has never publicly admitted, but which we found out via FOIA requests. It's still shocking that a government agency would be using misleading propaganda from a private company and pretending that it's an official government production. Even worse, despite numerous requests, ICE has failed to show any proof that it properly licensed the video from NBC Universal, leading us to wonder if they "pirated" it.

ICE under John Morton has become a massive joke and a disgrace to American ideals of innocent until proven guilty and important things like free speech and due process. Rather than making this joke of a video (which certainly has Hollywood-style production... I wonder how that happened...), Morton should be issuing apologies for the mistakes that were made under his watch, and tendering his resignation. Instead, he's celebrating? Sickening.

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Bunch of krap ! I would of given this a down rating and would of commented my displeasure but you are right.
If they allowed it they would be bombarded with negative responses.They think they can just go on and on and get away with what they do.
In the end I have the feeling they will be in for some real issues from the Computer Literates around the World.

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Someone should capture the video and upload it to youtube with rating and comments enabled. This would be interesting for two reasons; to see how the comments fall before it's taken down, and, that's the second thing, how long before it's taken down.

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Bookmark that link and when you want to download a YouTube video, just select that bookmark. It will give you a bar across the top of the page listing all the available formats to download the video in.

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"Made In China" is on everything. Pay attention every time you purchase something. You'll see it's true. It's all imported by proud Americans though. Does that even count? Some products will display the USA or Canadian flag prominently, but if you look closer you'll see they're trying to misled consumers who don't bother to read the fine print. Saving jobs my ass, but I guess ICE has to justify their pay cheques somehow. Otherwise they might see their own jobs go out the window and their budget reduced. Can't have that now, can we?

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After reviewing the source of that articles information, the FRBSF, I have to say, there are some important issues to highlight.

One example is this:

A total of 88.5% of U.S. consumer spending is on items made in the United States. This is largely because services, which make up about two-thirds of spending, are mainly produced locally.

So, it is stating that a majority of the measured G&S purchased is Services, not Goods. Of course services are local. Please tell me how to outsource your Starbucks cashier. I want to know so I can figure out how to cash in on the remote service industry...

The highlight is this part:
The market share of foreign goods is highest in durables, which include cars and electronics.

While it is difficult to outsource services (Outside of the call center scenario), it is easy to outsource physical goods manufacturing.

If you take this as a whole, and remove the part that is almost impossible to outsource, then the numbers look very much different.

12% of all durable goods (Highest in household goods)
6.4% of all non-durable goods (highest in clothing/shoes).

This honestly looks like at attempt to cover it all up by saying "Look, we spend more money locally then internationally", but if you look at the amount of money spent on good/services that can realistically be produced locally instead of internationally, it starts to get very one sided again (We import what we can, but many things that is not possible with).

I mean, fuel? Of course that is at 0.1. China is one of the largest importers, they do not have surpluses to sell, and our biggest supplier of petrol products is South American countries.

I am still wondering why services is even on this list, since it seems like an artificial prop to make the numbers look better.

Housing: How can I buy a house in the US that is in China...

Household operations: Once I can figure out how to get Chinese cleaning ladies to come over to your US house, and Chinese Plumbers to fix your US sinks, this could change too....

Transportation: The MRT works great here, but I think getting from Xinzhuang to Donghu will not help people in LA...

Medical Care: Just dial 1-800-mychinesedoctor?

Recreation: Not everyone wants to go to that nice Chinese theater when their local cinaplex is just down the road.

Other services: Just don't have any more jokes.

So, basically, I cannot take this "study" seriously, when it lumps things that practically cannot be outsourced in with things that can in fact be outsourced.

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I'm going to be disappointed unless somebody does a parody of this video explaining how you can steal an American job by exploiting the legal system to remove legal American web sites for over a year with no institutional recourse.

I own that mod chip. I use it to make portable movies of things i own. I also used it as an ebook reader. Found it most useful for movies though. Good way to keep my self entertained on long bus rides.

Police State

What I find most interesting, is that the bulk of the video pertains to trademark infringement (and fake drug as opposed to just cheap knockoffs). Trademark is about the only part of "intellectual property" that I see still has any real purpose/value, and abolishing copyright and/or patents doesn't really change much of what he talked about.

As everyone knows, jobs actually LOSE VALUE when people 'work' in them. Have you ever heard of 'used jobs' at all? Of course not--they're that worthless. What Morton is doing by stopping all of these legal, profitable businesses is in fact saving thousands, maybe millions, of brand-new American jobs--for later, when they will potentially exist. As Benjamin Franklin so nearly said, a job SAVED is a job EARNED.

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The only "new" jobs are low-pay. For example, the jobs that GE created were very low paying jobs with shit benefits. Yay GE created jobs in an economy where people need them, but forgot that a higher standard of living was established and these new jobs help AMERICANS barely make ends meet!

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Jobs Gone offshore?

Yeah, but that's the fault of a) the consumer wanting cheaper products b) the corporations providing NO OTHER OPTION for the consumer to choose (ie: cheaper or made in the USA) c) corporate profits of AMERICAN (aka "international" aka "untouchable because we bribed politicians around the world") corporations.

Nice try to spin the facts. Too bad the public at large is not smart enough to see through this facade.

Re: Re: Jobs Gone offshore?

I didn't say it was totally their fault, but yes, the consumer wants cheaper prices so they go to places like WalMart. That's a fact. If you want it made here, you have to pay more for the final product.

Some do, some don't. So you can be sarcastic about it all you want, but it is still a fact that consumers themselves are partly to blame.

Re: Re: Re: Jobs Gone offshore?

You're missing my point.

Consumers want cheaper prices. All other things being equal, the cheaper product is superior. This is a "fault" or something requiring "blame".

You're moralizing over something amoral (not immoral, amoral). What is it consumers are to blame for? Manufacturing jobs move to parts of the world with cheaper labour. You clearly view this as a problem, but "solving" this requires protectionist policies, bigger gov't and a less efficient market.

Manufacturing jobs moving to parts of the world where labour is cheaper is progress. While unfortunate and sad for parts of North America like Detroit, etc... the only alternative is inefficiencies which result in a net loss.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Jobs Gone offshore?

I don't clearly view it as a "problem" but merely stated it as a factor in job loss, which is true. I also never said that protectionist strategies were required either.

You're going WAY off the deep end and putting words into my mouth.

There are alternatives to these "inefficiencies" you refer to. For one, how efficient is it (think of it globally now, including the environment) to have your fruit grown in Canada, shipped to the US to be waxed, shipped back to Canada for a higher price? Would it not be more efficient to just transfer it from the orchards (much closer to their ripe-date) to the markets?

If you actually have the means to do so, would it not be more efficient to buy from a local farmer who isn't trucking their produce all over and coating it will pesticides (or at least using less) then waxing it to make it look healthy?

In terms of manufacturing in the Detroit area, the first problem is you need to change the mindset of a) the management and b) the workers (and obviously their union 'leaders').

Once you give a few people a reality check, once you actually bargain for useful skill training, work pools, decent wages (not $24.53/hr with 4 weeks vacation to ride a floor sweeper -- Navistar, 1998) with some benefits provided by the company and some by employees themselves... Would that not be more efficient than building plants in Mexico where you struggle to produce 30 trucks a day while the Chatham plant turns out over 110 a day (and with far less defects)?

So you see, there are inefficiencies, but these can be ironed out.

The consumer does want cheaper items, and I agree with that, but it comes at a price; products manufactured in foreign countries, not here!

As to your "which result in net loss" you are missing some information. In 1996 Chrysler waiting lists 6 months long for their minivans and every 42 seconds $7000 PROFIT (not revenue) rolled off the lines in Windsor (see Droullard Road plant).

So consumer choice does play a factor in the decision for companies to reduce costs. Try to build computer components here for close to the same price as those made in Taiwan and China? You can't. Should you blame the customer? NO, and I never said to. But the fact that even if you did build components here and assemble them here, you would struggle to make sales compared to the cheaper stuff in China. Is the customer choosing cheaper items a factor, absolutely, should they be blamed and SOPA used to punish them, NO. I emphasized that so you don't try to inject words or change context.

ICE

The children!

Come on, Masnick, are you some sort of pedophile? It's all for the children. How can you support child pornography?

/troll

To be employed in the ICE you have to:
1- be able to stick your head into your ass for a lifetime;
2- be technologically impaired;
3- have a hugely inflated ego;
4- take it up your arse from the big corporations.

Actually I think that applies to be in politics with a few additions but that's for another article.

Re: Re: Re: Re: The children!

Sorry, it's confusing.. I know it's mentally damaging to even try to imagine how they do it but they do. Sometimes it takes a little bit of faith to actually believe to what lengths they go for the monies =(

Parodies..

Re: Parodies..

Are you KIDDING?! I'd give any parodies of this video a day, MAX, before they get taken down due to 'copyright violation' or something along those lines.

Mind, I'm sure they'd be hilarious, because when the original video is already such a joke, you can only go up from there, I just highly doubt ICE would allow people to mock their propaganda like that.

It is kind of funny if you step back and look at things. Like what about all the jobs they are destroying? Those people here in America selling these goods? Those people on the streets selling these goods have a job selling them. It is not a "legal" job but still an American job. All of this is about protecting the "blessed" few. It is not really about jobs so much as it is about control over those jobs.

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Mr. Goldman,

Perhaps it would help if you used a disclaimer that what you say is your personal opinion based upon third party hearsay, and not based upon a legal analysis using objective facts (a necessary condition that I am certain you impress upon your students on a daily basis).

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Perhaps it would help if you noticed we are in a comment section of a site an thus it's implied that it's an opinion? And perhaps you should go study the law in order to see what we all know already and understand that the ICE broke the law when it failed to give back the domain after the deadline for the forfeiture process expired? Don't let the fact that Dajaz1 lawyers never got a word about the process because everything was secret bother you.

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I do not know if the Dajaz1 lawyers got a word in edgewise, but my experience before courts of law lead me to question the veracity of such a statement. I do not discount, inter alia, the fact that in many instances lawyers attempt to try their cases in the court of public opinion, and not before a judicial tribunal.

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"I haven't read any of the particulars, but will still show up in comments and act like a condescending prick and try to call out other people for concocted improprieties where none exist in other to further the agenda of my bosses"

Kids! Put down those imported FlintstÖnes vitamins and take a handful of Tylenol! Let's see... yep... it's got the official "kid-tested, Morton-approved" logo on it. Safe for consumption and easily twice the price of its competitors!

Free markets

The other funny thing they dont seem to realize is that consumers are not as stupid as they like to pretend we are. When someone goes online to buy a $1000 bag for $45 they know they are not buying the real bag.

I look at things like these bags and shoes the same as art. Someone who buys a copy of a famous painting to hang in their home knows it is not the real thing. They could never afford the real one so they settle for the copy. Now there are always those though that will settle for nothing less than the original and will pay millions to own originals. No amount of cheep copies will make the original worth less. The same is true of these products.

So long as the true manufacture makes a quality product they will always have people willing to pay for it. The cheep made in China or whatever products will have flaws and not be of the same quality. If the knockoffs are of same or better quality then the maker needs to look at their production and fix the problem.

Based on DOJ's other law-stretching legal theories, wouldn't they consider Mike aiding and abetting criminal infringement for embedding this? (Fair use? That's just a fairytale that wasn't created by Morton's boss Disney - so it can't possibly exist.) The users are viewing it and Mike has ads on his page.

Maybe this whole thing is a honeypot scheme to silence Mike without having to pay $100,000,000.00.

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I'm just waiting with bated breath for Average Joe to show up and insist that the $100 million link is proof that Techdirt is just a scheme to blackmail honest american Trade Organizations like the MPAA.

No Comments on Youtube channel

And while everyone here is aware of ICE's mistakes, no one else is any the wiser!

You can't like or dislike or comment on their video, which proves they know they are full of shit and want single-direction communication (not even half-duplex).

That shows you what ICE is really about, along with the US Gov's integrity and accountability.

You worry about Romney lying to win votes? Even if Ron Paul were to win, he'd either be assassinated or just as bad as Bush/Obama for making changes the people want, and I actually would vote for Paul (despite not agreeing with cutting EPA/Education/etc.. funding).

You want change? It won't come from a leader. Until the masses demand change in a unified voice that any idiot could understand (OWS isn't unified enough and you need to GET THAT MESSAGE OUT), you won't see change.

Too bad overriding signals like they did on UHF wasn't possible. That was a great way to show-up corporations. I don't know how to do it, but those who do should definitely do it. Don't just hack one news site, hack them all! Have all of them expose everything at once. Hack the cable stations and broadcaster stations and display truths instead of BS.

Maybe, just maybe, it would cause enough people to question to maybe make some change.

But until you wake people up from their daily slumbers they call "life" you won't see that change.

ICE is slippery like the frozen water item sharing from which the Gov composed its name.

ICE are a bunch of Arses !!!
SOPA/PIPA = WAR and so does the antics of ICE.I am waiting for millions of people to all join in and hack n crack.
And I also really want to see a real Boycott of all things RIAA & MPAA NOW !

Dajaz1: Neither censored nor due process denied, but if censorship and denial of due process is repeated enough within the blog-o-sphere people will start to believe it.

Deportation: Perhaps people should provide their real name.

GAO: To be accurate, what the GAO did say was that the economic effect could not be quantified. It did not say the data was "false" or that it was "true".

84,000 sites: IIRC, rectified within about 24 hours.

PSA: So what? Perhaps they should have simply had some for hire ad agency create the same thing. Would that make you happy?

PSA licensed: Tempest in a teapot. Does anyone seriously believe it was used without the consent of the author? BTW, under federal law it could have been used even if author screamed "foul" at the top of his/her lungs. See: 28 USC 1498. I follow litigation associated with this section of law quite closely, and no suit for recompense by the author of the PSA has been filed with the Federal Court of Claims. I find this rather telling.

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> Dajaz1: Neither censored nor due process denied, but if censorship and denial of due process is repeated enough within the blog-o-sphere people will start to believe it.

"Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body." - WP

Dajaz1 (i.e., a public website) was taken down (i.e., suppressed) for a year by a government entity. Sounds accurate to me.

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Anonymous Coward, Jan 9th, 2012 @ 10:32am: Troll.

But just in case..

Dajaz1: the correct seizure and forfeiture process were not followed, legal deadlines not respected, site owners and lawyers denied details and information to proceed properly. Not direct censorship indeed. But a huge denial of due process. But you know that, you are just trolling.

Deportation: UNDERAGE TEEN RUNNING FROM HOME. Because teens always know what they are doing. Thank you for your trolling.

GAO: if it can't be quantified then any quantification is false. But you are twisting the facts. Troll.

84k sites: I'll put a banner in your Facebook and an auto-reply in your e-mail redirecting ppl to an official notice that you are a pedophile for 24 hours. Sounds good? Trollolol.

PSA: You fight copyright infringement telling ppl it's easy to identify and with all zealotry then you disregard copyright when yourself infringe it. If everything was fine why so secret? Trololilolol.

I rate your trolling 3/10 because you are trampling with children. Bad boy.

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The correct "civil seizure" process was followed. As for everything else that appears to rile others, it is based exclusively on third party hearsay...which is one of the reasons why we have rules of evidence pertaining to hearsay given its inherent unreliability.

PSA: Pray tell, where is it shown that copyright was infringed? As I noted, the total absence of any action before the Court of Federal Claims is quite telling indeed.

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The correct "civil seizure" process was followed. As for everything else that appears to rile others, it is based exclusively on third party hearsay...which is one of the reasons why we have rules of evidence pertaining to hearsay given its inherent unreliability.

Your level of dense stupidity is really incredible sometimes.

Here are THE FACTS: (1) domain was seized. (2) DOJ had 60 days to notify, followed by 35 days for domain owner to ask for it back... at which point DOJ has 90 days to either return or file for forfeiture. That means a MAXIMUM of 185 days in which one of 2 things MUST HAPPEN: domain goes back or forfeiture is filed. (3) Neither thing happened in 185 days.

None of that is "hearsay." The domain was returned after 380+ days. There's 200+ days in there that's pure denial of due process and you know it or you're totally full of shit yet again.

I have to say, you've gotten worse over the years. You used to sign your name and you used to have intelligent things to say. Now you're just purely full of shit, purely in support of anything that goes against what we say.

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The USG went to court and secured a court order authorizing seizure of the site. My question is "Did Dajaz1, through its counsel, go to the court that issued the order and request that the seized property be returned?" Nowhere is this question answered, and it is a pretty important one at that.

Courts issue order all the time, and parties effected by such orders file motions challenging the orders. What makes Dajaz1 any different since the same procedural rules of law apply?

All you know is what is attributed to its attorney in a news article (i.e., hearsay). News is informative, but it is not necessarily definitive about what actually transpired. You seem inclined to accept the information in the news article as the gospel truth. I tend to be more circumspect, and particularly when it involves judicial matters.

You have many intelligent things to say, but in this matter there is a logic fail that falls short of the mark.

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A one sided court order that kept getting extended...

Dear gods, why are you being so obtuse about this?

Everytime Dajaz1 tried to see the court order or figure out when the hearing would be, ICE stone walled them. And here you are, supporting the 1 year censorship of a blog that had authorized links on it.

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I am not supporting anything. All I am saying is that just because something appears in a news article does not mean that what was written is "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth".

In the case of this specific website it seems to me that far too many are unquestioningly accepting what was contained in the news article. Perhaps I am mistaken, but experience suggests to me that there is much more to this story than simply "they kept me in the dark".

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The USG went to court and secured a court order authorizing seizure of the site.

Ok. Let's try this again, for those who can't comprehend basic math:

1. USG secured a court order which had specific rules to it.
2. Among those rules: if the property owners requests return of the property, that property MUST be returned within a 185 days or a case for forfeiture must be filed.
3. Neither of those things happened.

Due process was absolutely denied. And since this involved a blog with tons of non-infringing speech, it was clearly censorship as well. This isn't even debatable at this point.

My question is "Did Dajaz1, through its counsel, go to the court that issued the order and request that the seized property be returned?" Nowhere is this question answered, and it is a pretty important one at that.

You've asked this question at least 4 times, and I've answered it each and every time. Why you continue to pretend it hasn't been answered is something that perhaps only you understand.

dajaz1 followed the exact procedure prescribed under the seizure and forfeiture law. You know who did not? The USG.

Courts issue order all the time, and parties effected by such orders file motions challenging the orders. What makes Dajaz1 any different since the same procedural rules of law apply?

Must we do this again. DO THE MATH. Dajaz1 did exactly what the procedures state -- and under that law one of two things HAD to happen by day 185: domain returned or forfeiture begun. Which one of those two things happened? That's right! Neither.

Look, dude, just admit that you're totally full of shit. It would make life easier for everyone.

All you know is what is attributed to its attorney in a news article (i.e., hearsay).

False. I know the gov't had 185 days to return the domain. I have confirmation FROM ICE & confirmed by a US Senator, that Dajaz1 followed the proper procedure for asking for the domain to be returned -- at which point it NEEDED to be returned by 185 days, or forfeiture procedures begun. I also know -- CONFIRMED BY DOJ -- that no such procedure was started, and the domain was not returned for over 380 days.

Care to admit that you are FULL OF SHIT yet?

I have spoken to tons of people related to this case, including representatives of the US government. What I know is not hearsay. What I know is you are full of shit. Yet, in your desperation to believe that the government didn't totally fuck up here, you have put such incredible blinders on that you look like a ridiculous and completely clueless moron.

No wonder you don't put your name on shit any more.

You seem inclined to accept the information in the news article as the gospel truth

No. I know what happened.

Want to admit that you are completely full of shit yet?

You have many intelligent things to say, but in this matter there is a logic fail that falls short of the mark.

You would make me laugh if you weren't so completely full of shit.

Seriously: you're so completely wrong on this it's not even funny. Stop digging. Admit that you are 100% completely full of shit and let's move on. If you choose not to do so, please be aware that I will highlight your full of shitness at every opportunity from here on in. Because, honestly, I can handle the lobbyists and whatnot who speak here and say ridiculous stuff. They're just kind of funny. But you come here every day -- with the most pretentious attitude while still being so totally full of shit. You never back up your statements. You just say stupid shit like "it might help to read the bill." Yet when called to respond to those who actually quote the language, you chicken out.

Because you are full of shit.

Same thing here. You insist it wasn't censored and due process was followed. You are wrong.

You insist my statements are based on hearsay from an article. You are wrong.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

If you have all of the substantiating data you claim, then provide it here so that others, myself included, can see what really happened.

There is one thing at this point in time that is crystal clear. No one has come forward with anything showing that counsel for Dajaz1 went into court and requested that the property be returned. Counsel is quoted as saying the USG was requested to return the property. Ok, by what instrument was this done? A phone call? An email? A letter? An office visit? Other?

In the ordinary course of legal matters associated with a court order, a request would be in the form of a motion filed with the court that issued the order. Surely counsel entered an appearance before the court on behalf of his client and has a copy of such a filing. The seizure request having been filed with the Federal District Court for the Central District of California (basically L.A.), I would expect that any relevant court documents reside there.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

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There is one thing at this point in time that is crystal clear. No one has come forward with anything showing that counsel for Dajaz1 went into court and requested that the property be returned. Counsel is quoted as saying the USG was requested to return the property.

We've explained this to you. Four times now. I can't believe you want to go through this again.

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He is that stupid. I'm amazed you actually took your time to reply the trolling Mike. But then again it might be necessary because this sort of self-righteous and grandiloquent troll actually gets less informed ppl to believe his bs. So while they get annoying and repetitive at some point we too have to keep debunking all his trolling to make the message go across clear and loud for the masses.

I take my hat for your patience, Mike. Even though you were clearly at your limit in your last post lmao

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

Mike, this guy is full of shit but you are also lacking something in your timeline. Where is the evidence that the government didn't receive extensions to file the forfeiture action from a court in the district where the domain names were seized? Lack of activity on the original docket? Lack of dockets with the domain names in the title? The government should be able to produce case numbers if they received a FOIA request at the most or possibly by a casual phone call or email at the least. Even if the cases are "sealed" the case numbers would not be.

Re:

Re:

Dajaz1: Neither censored nor due process denied, but if censorship and denial of due process is repeated enough within the blog-o-sphere people will start to believe it.

Sorry, but most normal thinking people consider having a blog taken down for over a year on bogus charges, and then denying them their day in court with secret "extensions" they were never allowed to see and in contradiction with the law under which the domain was seized both censorship and a denial of due process.

We know that you like this kind of censorship, but that doesn't make it any less censorship or denial of due process.

Seriously: standing up for ICE against Dajaz1 is beyond the pale. It's disgusting.

Deportation: Perhaps people should provide their real name.

No, perhaps ICE should do some freaking research. Your willingness to defer to law enforcement because their law enforcement is also disgusting.

GAO: To be accurate, what the GAO did say was that the economic effect could not be quantified. It did not say the data was "false" or that it was "true".

There are tons of studies that claim job losses. GAO could not find a SINGLE credible one. That tells you all you need to know.

84,000 sites: IIRC, rectified within about 24 hours.

48 hours, actually, but I'm not sure how that's any better.

PSA: So what? Perhaps they should have simply had some for hire ad agency create the same thing. Would that make you happy?

Yes. I don't think that the government should be running inaccurate propaganda created and owned by corporations -- especially without disclosing this fact.

PSA licensed: Tempest in a teapot.

Potentially. But kinda gets to the point. It's not always so easy to know, is it?

Does anyone seriously believe it was used without the consent of the author?

No. But I also don't believe Dajaz1 posted works without authorization (and I've seen the actual evidence there), but it didn't stop ICE from censoring them for over a year.

That's the point. Which apparently is so far above your head that you can't see it.

Re: Re: Re:

WHERE'S THE PROOF? If Dajaz1.com had thousands of links to infringing material, was a piracy haven, was so evil as you clearly seem to think...then WHY WAS IT NEVER CHARGED? Why did it never get a trial? Why are you advocating a system of punishment upon accusation, of being guilty before being declared innocent?
Until Dajaz1.com has a fair and open trial, it is completely innocent. At least, that's what should have happened. It should have had its day in court before being blocked for over a year, but instead, it was blocked and its own lawyer never received any information about the secret seizure extension orders. That is a complete denial of due process.

Re: Re: Re:

...like dajaz for instance- a website that had thousands of links to infringing material.

Really? How come the four instances DOJ/ICE used in it's affidavit were all sent to them by the artist, the label or their agent? You'd think if there was "thousands of links to infringing material" it should have been easy as pie to find actual infringing material, but that didn't happen did it?

Re: Re: Re:

Re:

You lost me at "deporting an minor to a foreign country without even knowing her real name is a reasonable circumstance we should all be happy with."

Although to be fair I did manage to read the next point where you claim that saying "it cannot be quantified" is in no way the same thing as saying that previous claims of quantification were false even though that's logically impossible.

Re: Re:

Check back a few articles on Techdirt. ICE picked up a teen who had run away from home, and she gave a false name. They ran this name against their database, found it matched a Colombian criminal and deported her. All without bothering to check if the name she gave was her actual real name.

Re:

Their domain was seized for a year with no warrant, no chance to challenge the action, and no charges filed.

"Deportation: Perhaps people should provide their real name."

Perhaps our law enforcement people should be required to check facts. Apparently you feel that we should deport anybody we don't like, on a whim, without due process. Oh right, you don't understand what due process is.

Re:

"Dajaz1: Neither censored nor due process denied, but if censorship and denial of due process is repeated enough within the blog-o-sphere people will start to believe it."

So seized with no trial, hearing, etc... for 1 year and then returned means what?

"Deportation: Perhaps people should provide their real name."

Perhaps ICE should add two and two before deporting minors to third world countries.

"GAO: To be accurate, what the GAO did say was that the economic effect could not be quantified. It did not say the data was "false" or that it was "true"."
So they said that some data someone else asserts every chance the get was produced using flawed methodology and the values are unquantifiable, but they didn't call it false? That analogous to you saying "the world was created by a slug" and I reply "well, there's no way to know that and no supporting evidence" and you assert that I didn't call your slug statement bullshit.

"84,000 sites: IIRC, rectified within about 24 hours."
So they only infringed huge amounts of speech for a day? Awesome, I feel so much better.

"PSA: So what? Perhaps they should have simply had some for hire ad agency create the same thing. Would that make you happy?"
This is so intellectually dishonest as to be almost laughable. I'll restate the obvious just so it's here for the unfortunate googler. The point of the discussion around those PSA's is that they are incredibly one-sided, inaccurate ads produced by a corporation and presented as though created by the gov't. Further, given that the PSA's wax with moralistic falsities about copyright infringement, the ambiguity of them being licensed is ironic to say the least, and belies the complexities of trying to navigate arcane copyright rules in this modern age.

Re:

<>Dajaz1: Neither censored nor due process denied, but if censorship and denial of due process is repeated enough within the blog-o-sphere people will start to believe it.

I assume that you have verifiable sources that show that official due process was followed every steop of the way, and which you can post here?

Deportation: Perhaps people should provide their real name.

So you believe that it's perfectly fine for a government agency to endanger someone's life, based on the word of an underage girl, without doing any further checking? Perhaps you should be held accountable for everything said by every "Anonymous Coward" on the net...

84,000 sites: IIRC, rectified within about 24 hours.

So you wouldn't mind if I stuck a banner on your home saying "A Child Molester lives here!" for 24 hours?

PSA licensed: Tempest in a teapot. Does anyone seriously believe it was used without the consent of the author? BTW, under federal law it could have been used even if author screamed "foul" at the top of his/her lungs. See: 28 USC 1498. I follow litigation associated with this section of law quite closely, and no suit for recompense by the author of the PSA has been filed with the Federal Court of Claims. I find this rather telling.

Sure, why should anyone care if ICE follows the same laws it claims to be upholding? After all, the government is above the law, right?

ICE ICE BABY

Looks to me like John Morton has been under too much stress with a few too many sleepless nights. He should take a holiday... a really really long holiday.

I can't say I know much about counterfeit goods, beyond the rare adverts for "replica" products through my door (at least they are honest). I do know though that many women buy replica handbags because they cannot afford the originals. So little gain for the original sales by stopping the fakes.

I have a better idea about their doggy drugs when other poorer countries produce their own versions instead of paying the owner some super high change. So cheaper medicine floods the poorer country and then some bright spark gets the idea to export them for profit. Now I am not saying that their are not some totally fake drugs around but the vast majority are simply patent enforcement. They are lawful in the poorer country but not outside it.

What I find most interesting is that in this video one section reads "Piracy Doesn't Work". That is a totally wrong statement seeing how since 2003 piracy has helped to totally reshape the markets. Years ago there were many delays to maximise profit but now DVD/Bluray sales, and lawful on-line screening, can quickly following the cinema release. So piracy and 3D are the two biggest causes of market progressions since 2003.

Steal for Free

An adapter that lets you "hack" into a video game and "steal it for free." Is he saying there's someway to steal that cost money... I kinda thought stealing already kinda implied that... oh and how could you "steal" a game you already own?

Re: Steal for Free

Well what is really kind of funny is that you have to buy that mod chip. So in a way you have to pay to steal. So it was not even stealing for free. If you stop and look at it most of the pirating of movies, music, and games actually cost money. Rarely is theft really cost free, it is just the money does not go to the person who made whatever it is you are stealing.

ICE Director John Morton

ICE Director John Morton is a clueless sycophant, who will never come to the realization that American companies have "stolen" more jobs from the American worker by shipping them overseas, to make products in foreign countries by the lowest bidder. Companies did not do this to provide lower cost items to American consumers, they did it to increase their own profit margin and to beat any and all competition into submission, anything else is a bold-faced lie. Those are the "real" jobs that are lost, not "magic numbers" based on cooked up statistics.

Now there is your real "counterfeit" product, John. I expect you to not do something about that, because then your overseers would be angry with you. No, not the American people, who you claim to serve, but your "company" masters. Now go back under the rock you crawled out from under, and never speak to us again.

I'm sure we'll end up hearing about him eventually working for some MPAA / RIAA type outfit after his "Public Service" job is over like many other so-called "government" servants.

How Does Protecting Foreign Companies Help America?

Several of the examples of counterfeit goods were not even made by American parent companies, much less American workers.

For example, early in the clip they show a website selling presumably-counterfeit Manolo Blahnik shoes, a Spanish designer that has its headquarters in the UK.

Then in another clip there is a news clip talking about counterfeit Louis Vuitton handbags, but that's a French company.

I doubt any of these foreign companies manufactured products in America, ever, so the only American jobs involved in their distribution and sale are the guys unloading freighters, driving trucks, and manning cash registers, and Americans can still do that whether they are selling counterfeits or knock-offs.

Re: How Does Protecting Foreign Companies Help America?

And yet, most, if not all, of the highest profile tech companies are American and headquartered in the US. The very same companies (Google, Facebook, Yahoo et al) that have created tens of thousands of jobs, but are being threatened by SOPA censorship.

Re: Re: How Does Protecting Foreign Companies Help America?

You forget that they're enabling and linking to piracy, some how and some way that no one's quite acceptably explained get other than whinging on about Google ads.

Curiously all of this is happening to web companies.

Then again, everyone knows that if you SERIOUSLY want to infringe just watch usenet places like, oh, say alt.sex.fetish.copyright.sopasucks.whileweinfringeaway
but that's not the Web so they don't notice.

By that way as far as I know no such usenet group exists. Well, it may shortly after I hit the enter key here but to a bundle of AC's we're all about IP theft anyway.

And, no, protecting foreign companies does little to help America or Canada. But the big fashion guys who can fill campaign warchests are all European anyway. It's da money again.

Re: Re: How Does Protecting Foreign Companies Help America?

Actually, Google, Apple et all do not create as much jobs as they could. Apple latest huge server hub generated 50 jobs (I'm gonna have to dig for this link). And they move a big load of their operations overseas to reduce costs. This 'costs American jobs' is somewhat of a fallacy, a baseless argument used to push for idiotic legislation.

Re:

mirror that shit

I second the anticipation of a parody video, or more necessarily, a point-counterpoint disassembly of the video and the bullshit contained therein. Hell, simply mirroring the video and allowing comments may suffice.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the DMCA axe to fall. It'll also be interesting to see if it's actually the content owner doing the swinging.

ICE & WHAT EVER TENDS 2 B FREEDOM

Just cant believe mostly all the retarded that defend ice or home land security or the police for the matter their there for one purpose to shut up to prevent any compitition to hollywood, sony timewarner, etc! just last week the u.s. government threaten spain to pass sopa which they did. just think of that & whats going on! spain film industry is doing good but hollywood does not want any competitors. its really mediocor & sad that hollywood tells our president what to do & hypicritical threating bulling other nations for hollywood sake! oh but the retards like max kennedy the minute men idiots fighting wasting time & life foolishly on immigrants crossing the border oh yea how that turn out for you! sorry to say it but americans have been suckered poision to hate their very own destruction becuz they cant figure out but just look in a mirror that your very worst enemy! not to say the endless divisions of im texan in democrat, derepublicans, christians vs jew,sheeit vs musslims, christians vs atheist and vice versa oh his gay whites vs hispanic black vs white the bullshit goes on & on! while rockafeller & company our just watering their mouths to see all of us idiots fighting! they declair marshal law & step in under national security or what ever shit they make up make one world government, one army,one currency they sucseed in their scam thanks to all the idiots. WAKE UP CAN YOU SEE IT! IF YOU STILL DONT WELL THEY JUST PASSED NDAA COMING TO UR COMMUNITY NEAR YOU!

The worst you are going to get is profits moved from one Chinese factory to another(or in many cases, its the same factory). American people selling the goods, so american jobs there. And a lot of money saved by the consumer, more money to spend on other things that keep Americans in jobs.

The Loophole

While it is true that any media the US Government makes from tax payer funds is public domain there is one massive loophole in this concept.

That loophole happens to be that these Governmental departments can hire another company to make the video for them and it is that company which holds the copyright... even if your taxes paid for the entire production!

I would term that "theft" myself.

Now since ICE are rather slippery and have a history of avoiding accountability then what do you think they did? Proof is in the rip and reupload when I expect that copy to soon DMCA vanish.

Pathetic propaganda, that's all this video is. If they were really concerned about losing jobs, they would have done something long ago about the rampant outsourcing (which continues to this day). This is a sleazy, transparent attempt to justify incriminating more Americans and further censoring the internet.

....Cut to child playing in sand next to two US flags stuck in sand. Anytime I see the US flag in a PSA, red flags go up. So much damage has been done in the name of "patriotism". A true patriot would have no part of this government.

As an example of the dearth of information concerning what actually transpired between counsel for Dajaz1 and the DOJ, we have the following dated 12/08/12 from TorrentFreak:

"After initially ignoring requests from DaJaz1 lawyer Andrew P. Bridges to return the domain, the U.S. government indicated it would begin the necessary forfeiture procedure. Bridges said he would submit a forfeiture challenge, but the deadline for the government to file apparently came and went with no visible action."

My comments are based upon the fact that "requests" is nowhere defined in either this or the wealth of other articles that discuss this matter. In a civil matter (in this case a judicial seizure, as opposed to a nonjudicial seizure) counsel for a defendant files an appearance before a court and files a motion with the court to either modify or dismiss the order. Is this what counsel did, or did he use extra-judicial means? "Requests" provides no clue since it can mean many things.

The comment attributed to counsel that he would wait until a forfeiture action was instituted seems a bit off the mark. It is counter-intuitive to simply bypass the opportunity to force the government's hand at the earliest possible opportunity, i.e., when the seizure was made, than to enter the fray at a later date. The former provides counsel in real time important information and the opportunity to truncate further proceedings immediately. The latter provides the government leeway to delay the institution of a forfeiture action by petition to the court.

It is on this basis that I have asked for clarification, and to be met with derisive comments instead of an attempt to try and answer a question posed in good faith does nothing to further an understanding of what was actually happening. Importantly, as an attorney I look at matters before a court in the context of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the provisions of federal statutes. I do not look at them in the context of a news article that provide no more than top-level, general comments that are not documented elsewhere.

The thing I thought was the funniest is that it said "American Innovation is lost", and showed an Incandescent light bulb going out. Smugglers & counterfeiters didn't do that, nor did patent infringers. The US Congress did that.
Oh, and now that they've closed down every single US-based incandescent light bulb factory, now they've changed their minds and made them legal again.
Sorry, off-topic, I know, but it still bugged me =-P

Ice video, with comments!

For all of us out here in the free world, who want to leave the government a message, I posted the ICE video, with comments enabled, at this link, so please feel free to stop over and post your comments.

I hope it will bring attention to ICE and let them know what real people think about this stupid, highly misleading video.

Please also remember, I reposted so people could let their feelings be known, not because I believe their message, so feel free to shoot ICE, not me.

ICE IDIOT

WUT

Regarding the video at exactly 2:27, where the magical flat TV complains about Baseball (or football or basketball, whatever) jerseys... wut? You mean it's not okay to buy a T-shirt with your favorite team's logo at 10 bucks instead of the official one that's marked at, what, 100 dollars at least?
And let's not be kidding ourselves. A shirt is a shirt. I've bought awesome T-shirts at 10$, and even stronger ones at 50.
Plus the official seal of approval is nothing more than "so, uh, boss..." -> "yeah sure whatever stick my head on a T-shirt and call it official".